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Vaughn Palmer: Devil’s in the details on ministers’ marching orders from Christy Clark

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark and members of her cabinet arrive for a swearing-in ceremony at the legislature in Victoria on Monday, June 10, 2013.

Photograph by: Jonathan Hayward
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

VICTORIA — On a day when the B.C. Liberals were to lay out the agenda for a postelection session of the legislature, it is worth noting that Premier Christy Clark has already issued itemized marching orders to her ministers.

The “mandate letters,” made public with the June 10 cabinet appointments, contain more detail than commonly found in the speech from the throne.

As noted here and elsewhere, the letters set out general goals for the whole cabinet — keeping the budget in balance, working to boost economic growth — as well as ambitious to-do lists keyed to each of the 19 ministries.

Some of those assignments are likely to revive old controversies or generate new ones as they play out over the next weeks and months.

For instance, among the dozen items on the list for Forests Minister Steve Thomson is to “consult with communities on the midterm timber supply report and implement area-based tenures as recommended to the legislature last spring.”

The reference is to a measure introduced in the pre-election session to address concerns about looming wood shortages in Interior communities dependent on the pine-beetle-ravaged forests.

Forest companies were to be given more secure access to specific stands of timber in the belief that they would then be more inclined to make investments in restoring those forest lands to their former health.

“Area-based licences or area-based tenures can act as an incentive for enhanced silviculture, since the licence holder who is making the investment will gain the benefit,” Thomson told the legislature back in March. “It can be a very important tool in the mitigation of midterm timber supply challenges.”

After the proposal drew protests from environmental groups who saw it as a giveaway to the companies, the Liberals withdrew the offending legislative passages on a promise to conduct further consultations this summer.

“What is required is to ensure that there is a clear and consistent public understanding about area-based management, the benefits that it will bring and how it will work,” Thomson said.

That in turn was translated into a plank in the Liberal election platform: “Following consultation with communities, industry, environmental organizations, forest professionals and First Nations; we will increase the diversity of area-based forest management ... consistent with the midterm timber supply recommendations in order to enable investment in growing trees and added value.”

Not surprisingly, the premier, with the win under her belt, instructed Thomson to revive the initiative, starting with the promised consultations. But as soon as the process gets underway, I expect the critics who denounced the shift as a front for quasi-privatization of the forests will be out in force.

Another assignment that is likely to revive a controversy from before the election is the one handed to new Minister of Environment Mary Polak: “Review the Pacific Carbon Trust and provide options for reform.”

The trust traffics in carbon credits, often to the benefit of various private sector emission-reduction schemes and to the detriment of publicly funded entities (school boards, health regions) that are compelled to buy the credits.

Getting rid of it altogether would be the preferred option for many. But at the very least, Polak should figure out how to stop the siphoning of funds from the public to the private sector.

Trade union leaders must be wondering about the intent of a passing reference in the mandate letter for Shirley Bond, whose ministerial bailiwick includes jobs, skills training and labour. “Our government has committed to private-sector union partners to ensure that our labour code meets the needs of employees as well as those who want to invest in our province.”

What could the business and investment community possibly want in the way of labour reforms that the Liberals have not already given them? as one who shall remain nameless wondered out loud to me recently.

Then there’s the directive to new Attorney General Suzanne Anton to “immediately begin consultations with stakeholders on modernizing B.C.’s liquor legislation and regulations and bring forward options for reform to cabinet.”

She is also supposed to “consider and present options to convert the Liquor Distribution Branch into either a Crown agency or Crown corporation with its own board of directors.”

Another flirtation with privatization?

It’s been less than a year since the Liberals extracted themselves from their last self-inflicted controversy on that particular turf — namely the ill-advised attempt to sell off the liquor distribution service. So you have to wonder why they would want to plunge back into those special-interest-dominated thickets.

But those working for the branch must be hoping for a move to Crown corporation status, given that senior public servants working for crowns generally make more than those in equivalent positions in the ministries, departments and branches of central government.

Nor is that the end of the potential minefields scattered among the premier’s instruction sets for her ministers. Readers wanting a look for themselves can find the mandate letters at www.gov.bc.ca/premier/cabinet_ministers/ posted along with the names and titles of the respective ministers.

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